Destroying Hope
by Fleury
Summary: When Harry finally defeats Voldemort, everyone thinks of all the victory. No one notices that the Lestranges escape from the final battle, vowing to kill anyone who didn't support the Dark Lord. Ginny's PoV. Some RHr and HG


Prologue  
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It was the most terrible feeling of my life, being stuck in that dismal room with nothing to do except listen to the moans and screams of those who have been tortured. It's horrible to see the pain upon their faces as curses are thrown around. What happened was traumatizing, but it needs to be told…

I suppose it all started during the final battle, which has since been dubbed "the battle for the world" and other ridiculous names. It was horrific. People were being blown apart, killed, and wounded. Cries shot through the huge mass of chaos at random intervals. The air was thick with pain, and all of the water was stained red. When everything seemed lost for the Dark Side, _he_ showed up. _He_ cast but one spell, sending many of us into oblivion… and then Harry stepped forward, hate coursing through him so intensely that there seemed to be a fine mist around him.

Threats were passed between the two, and one could no longer tell which person contained more hate. Then something happened that no one could forget: Harry fell to the ground. The battle around them had long since stopped to watch them, but with Harry's fall, the pace began to pick up. I felt a rather large and heavy body slap into my back. I fell forward, crushed. I heard a cracking sound, and pain erupted in my arms, legs, and chest. I saw my blood ooze out from a wound I had hastily healed earlier in the battle. Was this how I would die?

No one seemed to notice my silent pain… no one, except Harry. He had pulled himself up, the mist of hate so thick now that you could barely see his features. Both he and I could tell; it was time. My heart soared. This would be the final battle! He walked towards me, concern on his face and in the way he walked. He pulled the huge body of who I later discovered to be one Gregory Goyle off of me, and pulled me into his lap. My limbs and chest once again erupted in pain, and I gasped. I shifted my view and saw that my left arm, both legs, and a few ribs were broken. I could not see the ribs, but they felt broken to me. I saw the blood flow had stopped slightly in the gash on my leg and thigh (courtesy of a cutting curse sent at me by Lucius Malfoy). Harry cleaned it with a spell and handed me my miraculously unharmed wand. I tapped my thigh quickly, healing it. The flesh that now covered it was weak, since the cut had been nearly to the bone, but it would suffice. Harry picked me up and conjured a stretcher for me. He lifted me onto it and tapped it once with his wand. It zoomed off to where Madam Pomfrey was tending to the wounded.

When I arrived, she immediately came to me. Her wand moved fast as she hastily healed my broken bones. I felt the strange sensation of my bones coming back together. With a small _clunk_, I felt them in the right places. She cast a spell on me, and a green mist rose formed over me. Satisfied, she sent me on my way.

I was just barely into the battle again when Lucius Malfoy jumped out at me. I attacked him fiercely, no longer caring if I hurt him. It seemed that this time would be my time. I would kill him… I had to…

But I was pushed by someone hurtling towards Mr. Malfoy. The force sent me flying, and I was barely able to stay on my feet. When I looked back, I saw Mr. Malfoy and his son, Draco Malfoy, dueling quicker than anything I'd ever seen, save for Harry and Voldemort's duels. It soon seemed obvious that the battle for Mr. Malfoy was over. His wand lay broken next to his cowering self as Draco performed the killing curse on his own father. He was crying and will no longer talk about it.

I made my way back to the middle of the duel where Harry and Voldemort were dueling again. I squeezed Harry's hand as he knocked Voldemort back a few paces. The mist around him intensified so that he became completely invisible to the outside world. I could feel it now; Voldemort was most definitely doomed. I smiled as the duel continued.

It soon became apparent that no one would stop for a duel between Harry and Voldemort anymore. I blended in with the crowd and started to duel Vincent Crabbe. It struck me as very funny that Crabbe had been able to stay in the battle for so long. It had been three days of fighting and he was still in. It mystified me, but I never really had that much of a chance to think about it. As soon as Crabbe had been put on his deathbed (I hate killing people, or at least watching them die), I looked once again at the battle taking place between Harry and Voldemort. They were both shooting killing spells at each other, hitting members of both sides (as well as the ground) as they did so. I noticed a sort of separation between both sides of where Voldemort and Harry were fighting.

Then I saw something that made my heart freeze for a moment: Ron was in the way of a killing spell that had missed Harry. I waved my wand frantically, shouting out "_Accio_!" as I did so. He zoomed toward me just in time, and the spell missed him. He was panting and thanked me through gasps.

We turned to watch Harry's progress and found, to our great satisfaction, that Voldemort was slowing down, whereas Harry seemed as though he was just getting started. We saw him throw curses at Voldemort faster than they could be returned. His agility was amazing, the fastest I'd ever seen him go. And then Voldemort was struck down, and Harry killed him at last. An eruption took place, causing most of the fighters to fall down. The Dark Marks were erased painfully from every Death Eater's flesh. Most of them died on the spot. Most of them.

For many survived. Two of them would create a hell for all of our side, but we hadn't known that then… we were too busy celebrating to notice a black-haired woman and a brown-haired man, both gasping, crawl slowly away and into a nearby forest, their wands in their hands.

We were too busy celebrating that entire night to know that those two were out there, waiting for the next day to strike again – and win.

For at that time, we hadn't had a clue that the Lestranges were waiting to attack. We hadn't a clue that the next two months of our lives would be the most miserable we'd ever faced. We had absolutely no idea that they would build a facility that would weaken us through the day… no idea that they wanted to destroy our hope…

Disclaimer: I don't own HP -- JKR does; I'm just doodling with her characters  
A/N: I'm not going to beg for reviews; doing that always makes me _not_ want to review. However, I'm very interested in what you think of this fic. If you like the fic, then I'm afraid you'll have to wait a bit before you get another chapter, as I'll be away due to finals and a vacation. I'll try to answer the reviews (if there are any) in the next chapter.


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